Author of

Macaron Tutorial

Friday, May 01, 2009

I think I have quite possibly turned this site into an ode to strawberries just by looking at my latest posts. Hmmm...Hope you'll still tune in for one more next week and then I might tempt you with the lovely wild blackberries I see appearing on the edges of the yard. Gosh I love Spring! It would be a shame not to take advantage of what is at my fingertips and right now the fridge is about to burst with local strawberries and lemons.

It seems like I have a magic fridge these days. Just when I think I am reaching the bottom of the bowl of strawberries there is another one appearing from the other side. I did find out from B. that his mom dropped off some, as did a neighbor because "{I} would know what to do with them." I did ponder that thought while I was slicing strawberries for a tart. What to do with all these ugly little end pieces that I was not going to use? That's when the idea of dried strawberries popped into my head again and how to incorporate that into another dessert, a macaron especially.

One of the trickiest thing to do with macarons is to flavor the shells without messing up the texture. Adding liquid to the batter is to me like jumping off a plane wishing your parachute is going to work properly. In that regard, I stick to things I know are not going to interfere with the final result like citrus zest, dried and fresh herbs, etc...

And here I was staring at my sheet pan of dried strawberry slices, my sudden urge to make some macarons and well you can pretty much guess how the rest went...

I ran the dried strawberries through a coffee grinder I use only for spices and seeds. I then added that powder to the almonds and powdered sugar before running those through the food processor. That extra grinding step makes the powder super fine and smooth to fold into the macaron batter. The fragrance was wonderful but the color was a little bland so I added just a touch of cherry pink coloring, to bring out the specks from the strawberry powder. For the filling I used some leftover vanilla bean buttercream from a previous batch that I had kept in the freezer and just let it thaw at room temperature before filling the macarons.

I did want to make something special to introduce you to my new adoptee, Anja from Deelish Dish. For the past 3 years, Kristen from Dine And Dish has been the Master mind behind "Adopt A Blogger" in which she pairs novice bloggers with more seasoned ones. I mentored the first year, totally spazzed on the second and got lucky to catch up with her on the night she was making the pairs and volunteered my help again.

Prepare the strawberries: preheat your oven to 250F and position a rack in the center. Place the strawberry slices in a single layer on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and let them dry in the oven for about one hour. Let them cool completely. Process until extremely fine. Reserve.

Prepare the macarons: in a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites to a foam, gradually add the sugar until you obtain a glossy meringue. Do not overbeat your meringue or it will be too dry. Place the almonds, powdered sugar, reserved powdered strawberries and food coloring in a food processor and give them a good pulse until the nuts are finely ground. Add them to the meringue, give it a quick fold to break some of the air and then fold the mass carefully until you obtain a batter that falls back on itself after counting to 10. Give quick strokes at first to break the mass and slow down. The whole process should not take more than 50 strokes. Test a small amount on a plate: if the tops flattens on its own you are good to go. If there is a small beak, give the batter a couple of turns.Fill a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip (Ateco #807 or #809) with the batter and pipe small rounds (1.5 inches in diameter) onto parchment paper or silicone mats lined baking sheets. Preheat the oven to 280F and position a rack in the center. Let the macarons sit out for 30 minutes to an hour to harden their shells a bit and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on their size. Let cool. If you have trouble removing the shells, pour a couple of drops of water under the parchment paper while the sheet is still a bit warm and the macarons will lift up more easily do to the moisture. Don't let them sit there in it too long or they will become soggy. Once baked and if you are not using them right away, store them in an airtight container out of the fridge for a couple of days or in the freezer. To fill: pipe or spoon about 1 big tablespoon of butterceam in the center of one shell and top with another one.

Hey hey! Your adoptee is very lucky (oops, I almost typed luckee) to have you as a "parent!" :) Yeah, I noticed the strawberry love but I don't blame you-- those look like I could wipe them out in a second. Am totally excited for the blackberries coming up! (Even though it's only bound to make me jealous since I can only get them frozen usually...)

Yummy yum yum. Incorporating the strawberries into the shell that way is pure genius, but I'm not surprised. Hey, was wondering if you are getting my emails anymore? (if I asked you by email it might be self-defeating...)

Oh beautiful...jusy LOVELY!! What a fitting intro to your adoptee. She sounds so good & am sure you'll enjoy each others company! I've gotta check out how you did the dried strawberries too...for next year thoguh!

Helen--I have some freeze dried berries. Do you think that I could use those? I'm assuming so. I'm ready to take my first jump out the plane and make macarons. I love the strawberry posts. Keep 'em coming.

I love how often you say things like "the leftover vanilla pastry cream that I pulled out of the freezer". I aspire to be that person, the one who has pastry cream at the tip of her fingers! Thanks for the yummy post, and the fabulous strawberry powder idea!

I just made hazelnut espresso macarons last night and since the batch was a success, it inspired me to make more over the weekend and I've been day dreaming of flavor combinations I've yet to try out. I definitely want to give this one a go!

one question, do you know about how much of the dried strawberries you used? I'm always terrified to add anything extra for fear of failure lol.

Hell yeah ode to strawberries!!! Yes adding dried things to the macaron batter is the most important thing to do! I tried making espresso ones last year and added like 2 tbsp of dissolved espresso powder and poof- they sucked! Good pointers Helene! Hope the cookbook is going well!

These are just lovely. I keep seeing great ideas for using freeze dried fruit. I have freeze dried bananas at home and think that these might be a great way to use them -- with chocolate ganache or maybe caramel.

Oh beautiful strawberry, how you burst into my mouth with Spring, blooming on my tongue and making my soul sing... Oh sorry got carried away with the ode. Long live the strawberry! Not only do I love the recipes and the things you create with this divine fruit, I love to look at it because it says Spring which makes my heart sing! (yes, I am feeling kinda corny today).

Anja is sure lucky to have you as her mentor! I am gonna have a look at her blog after I am done staring at your macarons. I love strawberries too so you can never have too many of those! I just finished a strawberry pavlova myself but these macarons... lovely!

I love your macarons. I was wondering what your next flavour was going to be. I haven't made any for a while either so have been inspired. I am baking a bit of a Scandinavian theme this month so think I'll have to include a macaron with a twist.

Helen, I spent all of today studying for big exams. I just felt so wiped out, tired, and irritated. Then I looked at your blog as a treat for all that work... and I feel so much better! You're as good as aspirin or sunshine! :) Your macarons look beautiful as they always do.

oohh so pretty! ahk i still haven't decided what flavor to make mine for the party! and i have to make them all this friday! fried strawberries...economical? macarons for 30 i feel must be somewhat economical...

tes photos sont stop belles, and this is a wierd thing to say--but you should make your page header stretch farther and thicker, i love the eggs, but i think i should match the width of the page elements!

Mallory: I appreciate your feeback but I acutally prefer the header to read more like a book chapter header rather than a banner. Banners make me think of adds splattered across a page. Just a question of personal preference.

Dried strawberries? In powder form? You are much too fancy, my dear. :DI have never heard of it and I'm intrigued - soon we'll be having great strawberries around here and I'll be able to try your idea.

Oh WOW! These macarons look divine. I'm so impressed. What gorgeous little treats. I wish i could have like seven of them right now. And bring on all the strawberry recipes you like; I adore strawberry season!! Can't wait to see your blackberry recipes, too!

they are beautiful, as are the photos...i feel i can reach out and pop one in my mouth! i have made powder from freeze-dried berries bought at the health food store (or even trader joe's) before...but i should save a few bucks and dry my own scrap bits like you!

I don't know how you do it. Macarons seem to be my nemesis. I have 2 questions for you though... when making plain almost macarons, do the almonds become ground enough in the food processor to be like powder? Or is there always some grittiness? The second question is how do you know when to take macarons out of the oven? I thought mine were done today but after having them out for about a minute I realized the middles were still quite soft and I put them back in. I'm really trying to get a decent batch but so far, it hasn't happened...

Your blog looks like my blog lately! Well, of course, your blog looks WAAY better...but, I've been teased about the amount of strawberries gracing it lately. But, what can you say? It's Spring! I love your blog and it is always so, so inspirational. And these macarons are out of control.

Great idea! You may know about this already, but freeze dried fruit retains the color and flavor of the raw fruit and powderizes really easily. I use them when making fruit flavoured short breads, like my Strawberry Melting Moments. There's a store that sells almost any fruit in freeze dried form online.

I just can look at your pictures and hope some success next time. Your macs are so perfect...

In spanish we say "a la tercera, va la vencida". It means something like "third time will be good at last" or so (sorry for my english). But for me, it will be... seventh? But still trying till my macarons don't colapse.

Do you know the hardware expresion for computers "plug and play"? Macaroning for me is now something like "try and pray". ;-)

If I find a bottle in the middle of the street today and suddenly a genius comes out, one of my desires would be "I want to tell Helen my macarons are excellent, thanks to her instructios". ;-)

Hi, I was wondering if you had any advice for me. I made the strawberry macarons using this recipe of yours but the macaron shells 'dispersed' quite a bit during cooking so they're quite flat and some are broken/imperfect. Was this because I beat them too much? And my macaron feet are never directly under the shell, but more like a skirt that flares out from under. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Kay; yes, it sounds like you beat the batter too much. Re-skirt on shells: the fresher the egg whites the more ruffle/skirt you get instead of straight up feet. Make sure your eggs are aged at least 48 hours.

Thanks to your blog I cannot get macarons out of my head!!!!! I have taken some egg whites out to age and will give it a first attempt this weekend, in time to have perfected the recipe (i hope) before valentines day.

I hope you don't mind but I have used one of your photos on a 'macaron inspiration' blog post, and of course, have linked back to your site.

I wish I could take your macaron workshop to learn how to do it properly but will have to brave it on my own :)

I just love your blog! These strawberry macarons were the first ones I tried to make. Just finished picking 3 buckets of fresh berries. They must have been too ripe and juicy. They burned and evaporated on the parchment paper when I tried to oven "dry" them. I used freeze-dried strawberries from Trader Joe's, instead. Worked great! Also, love your buttercream recipe--easier than the italian meringue version I've used. I put strawberry essence in the buttercream. My co-workers' eyes bugged out when they tried the macs. Thanks for a great recipe!

HELP!I made these today. First time attempting macarons and I have never eaten one either but mine came out soggy. I used freeze dried strawberries finely ground. The day was not or humid. Cooked for 15 mins. switching bottom to top and front to back halfway through. I did however leave them in the pan to cool for like 5 minutes. Was that too long?

They are great! I've tried to make them and I really had problems with the oven. Do I have to put bottom and top? Or just bottom? With or without air?? Arrggg.. so many possibilities!!! Do I have to put the baking tray at the bottom or in the middle??? Can you help me please? No one explain these advices on their recipes. Thank you Sooooo much!

Jules: you can't tell before you bake them or even after they are or assembled which ones are the top or the bottom. That does not matter. All the shells must be baked otherwise you will only have the quantity the recipe makes.The recipe reads "position a rack in the center"....

Kristi: the amount given by drying and reducing to a powder the 1/2 cp recipe given in the instructions. Can't give you the amount after drying as i did not measure it but used what came out after processing the fresh fruit.

Dear Helen. Firstly, thank you so much for helpfully detail writing in your blog. Awesome.work and photos every time. I made my first batch of my 2 year cooking 2 days ago. I almost cried when I hold the Macaron in my hand. It was amazing feeling. But I have a question, my macaron is not in a good round shape like before baked. I baked it at 300 for 13mins. Taste good anyway. Many thanks. Hope to learn more from you.

I think you re right Helene. I tried again with a new batch today. It turned out much better than before, I baked it 280f 15 mins this time. May I ask is that the temp matter to the previous batch as I use 300f. Just want to know more. Thank you again Helene for replying me.